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Nov 2023 Mod notice:


There may be other, more specific, threads about some aspects of US politics, but this one tends to act as a hub for all sorts of related news and information, so it's usually one of the busiest OTC threads.

If you're new to OTC, it's worth reading the Introduction to On-Topic Conversations and the On-Topic Conversations debate guidelines before posting here.

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In line with the general forum rules, 'gravedancing' is prohibited here. If you're celebrating someone's death or hoping that they die, your post will get thumped. This rule applies regardless of what the person you're discussing has said or done.

Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

PushoverMediaCritic I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out. from the Italy of America Since: Jul, 2015 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out.
#269251: Jan 29th 2019 at 10:41:16 AM
Thumped: This post was thumped by the Stick of Off-Topic Thumping. Stay on topic, please.
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#269252: Jan 29th 2019 at 10:42:38 AM

Everyone, let's not fall for the obvious bait. We don't want to get thumped for going off-topic. We've got a Venezuela thread.

Disgusted, but not surprised
Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#269253: Jan 29th 2019 at 10:44:08 AM

Dag nammit not again!

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#269254: Jan 29th 2019 at 10:44:50 AM

So I'm guessing you guys won't need that earthquake machine I've developed?

Heh, I think we'll be good. [lol]

But to be slightly more serious, that's why I decided to add "within reason" to the end of my post. I didn't want to implicitly suggest that a natural disaster would be acceptable if it hurt Trump's election chances.

Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Jan 29th 2019 at 1:45:04 PM

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#269256: Jan 29th 2019 at 11:00:34 AM

Not strictly on topic, I confess, but thought it might merit discussion (and maybe get a point in the right direction to cross post):

Baltimore to Stop Prosecuting Marijuana Possession Cases Marlyn Mosby, the city’s top prosecutor, says she will no longer prosecute marijuana possession cases and will vacate thousands of convictions.Baltimore to Stop Prosecuting Marijuana Possession Cases Marlyn Mosby, the city’s top prosecutor, says she will no longer prosecute marijuana possession cases and will vacate thousands of convictions.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/29/us/baltimore-marijuana-possession.html

BALTIMORE — Marijuana is officially against the law in Maryland but Baltimore’s top prosecutor said on Tuesday that she would stop prosecuting marijuana possession cases within the city limits, regardless of quantity, and seek to vacate almost 5,000 convictions.

The announcement by Marilyn Mosby, the state’s attorney for Baltimore, follows a nationwide trend in which big city prosecutors are de-emphasizing marijuana prosecutions.

Baltimore has both the nation’s highest murder rate among big cities and one of the most broken relationships between its police and its citizenry. Its marijuana enforcement has been wildly disproportionate — more than 90 percent of the citations for low-level possession between 2015 and 2017 were issued to black residents, who make up about two-thirds of residents.

So for Ms. Mosby, declining to prosecute marijuana possession cases has everything to do with making the city safer.

“If you ask that mom whose son was killed where she would rather us spend our time and our attention — on solving that murder or prosecuting marijuana laws — it’s a no-brainer,” Ms. Mosby said in an interview in her office on Monday. “I don’t even think there’s a choice there.”

She also said that with a poor record of solving crime — only one in four homicides was solved last year — law enforcement needs to foster more good will. “How are we going to expect folks to want to cooperate with us,” she said, “when you’re stopping, you’re frisking, you’re arresting folks for marijuana possession?”

Edited by sgamer82 on Jan 29th 2019 at 12:02:43 PM

TechPriest90 Servant of the Omnissiah from Collegia Titanica, Mars, Sol System Since: Sep, 2015 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
AzurePaladin She/Her Pronouns from Forest of Magic Since: Apr, 2018 Relationship Status: Mu
She/Her Pronouns
#269258: Jan 29th 2019 at 11:09:44 AM

I leave for an hour and ~5 new thumps show up? Dear me, not our best day on this thread...

On topic though, its good that NY is trying to punch more against White Supremacy. The Proud Boys running around NYC for a while had lowered my opinion of the state, it pushing back is a welcome turn of events.

The awful things he says and does are burned into our cultural consciousness like a CRT display left on the same picture too long. -Fighteer
Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#269259: Jan 29th 2019 at 11:10:03 AM

Tell me about,i'm seeing stars [up][up]

Edited by Ultimatum on Jan 29th 2019 at 7:10:23 PM

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#269261: Jan 29th 2019 at 11:15:09 AM

I think everyone has heard of the Aryan Brotherhood,but I had no there were so many,yikes

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
SandersSupporter Since: Jan, 2019
#269262: Jan 29th 2019 at 11:15:15 AM
Thumped: This post has been thumped with the mod stick. This means knock it off.
SandersSupporter Since: Jan, 2019
#269263: Jan 29th 2019 at 11:20:44 AM
Thumped: This post has been thumped with the mod stick. This means knock it off.
HailMuffins Since: May, 2016 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
#269264: Jan 29th 2019 at 11:22:04 AM

Frankly, I'm shocked the KKK still exists.

Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#269265: Jan 29th 2019 at 11:22:55 AM

They've been overshadowed by newer hate groups,they're long past their prime

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#269266: Jan 29th 2019 at 11:23:36 AM

[up][up]Why? It's not like white supremacy has gone anywhere. They've even tried to rebrand themselves by altering their message to "PROTECT WHITE CULTURE".

Edited by Draghinazzo on Jan 29th 2019 at 3:23:48 PM

HailMuffins Since: May, 2016 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
#269267: Jan 29th 2019 at 11:26:13 AM

I suppose, but I'm willing to bet a lot of the other were founded by former klansmen who wanted to keep their ideology alive.

The KKK might be more-or-less dead, but their shadow remains.

Either way, the fact that being a goddamn white supremacist is a valid political position doesn't paint a pretty picture of the modern day US.

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#269268: Jan 29th 2019 at 11:42:15 AM

The KKK is probably larger than any time other than in the 1920s. It's just it's fragmented, splintered and changed into numerous smaller branches. Again, I feel like I live in a different country from a lot of other people here. In Appalachia The Klan is no joking matter and there's plenty of places you need to avoid if you want to avoid being beaten or killed.

The big difference is the Klan no longer wears sheets. They wear army camo and balaclavas, are 1% bikers, or t-shirts. A lot of the criminal gangs in the region, Christian Identity "churches", and militias (and there are a LOT of militias) can directly trace their membership back to founders who were part of the KKK. It's just they made their own like Bender.

David Duke, "National Director"/Grand Wizard of the KKK is more or less responsible for this Balkanize Me as he tried to make the KKK more socially acceptable again and resulted in a massive number of splinter groups. These groups are happy to cooperate in general even if they compete for drug and gun money.

If you assume I'm just taking the piss and this can't be true. One of the biggest accomplishments last year was finally banning them from our state children's carnivals.

https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2018/11/15/sales-nazi-and-kkk-items-banned-kentucky-expo-center/2003010002/

Edit:

If you think they're not the KKK but just "KKK derived" take note I tend to think of them as KKK but just not THE KKK.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Jan 29th 2019 at 11:45:49 AM

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#269269: Jan 29th 2019 at 11:47:23 AM

Frankly, I'm shocked the KKK still exists.

I'm not. I feel like people look at history the way they look at fiction: there's a certain assumption that once a specific chapter is closed, all of those people in the story stop existing.

The Confederates didn't go anywhere. The KKK didn't go anywhere. The Neo-Nazis didn't go anywhere. It's not like we rounded up all the racists and put them in extermination camps or some shit. Those same people are still there, they always have been, and they're still working towards that same agenda that they always were.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Jan 29th 2019 at 12:51:22 PM

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#269270: Jan 29th 2019 at 11:50:01 AM

The thing about the KKK is there's always been momentum to destroy these guys.

The HUAC was supposed to be an anti-Klan organization. They were THE anti-American Activities.

The people decided to go after Socialists instead.

(Nixon cough)

Why? Because there's always been enough people to think they had the right idea. It's a terrorist organization and even throwing that around causes a lot of people to go, "wha?" Because they're not brown.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Jan 29th 2019 at 11:50:46 AM

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#269271: Jan 29th 2019 at 11:51:41 AM

Richard Spencer, America's Most Punchable Nazi, has been punched in the face like four times for espousing his Nazi rhetoric. By reputation, the dude is a joke and the punchline is a literal punch in the face. But he's still out there and still fighting the bad fight for Nazi philosophy.

The biggest problem with how we teach civil rights to children is that we teach them that it is a matter of history, and not current events.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Jan 29th 2019 at 12:52:22 PM

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#269272: Jan 29th 2019 at 11:56:48 AM

There's a lot of noise basically they'll confront with.

In my state, the Confederacy is still treated as a romantic beautiful place that didn't abuse slaves and basically a High Fantasy setting. We had the Lawful Good plantation owners and their servants with everyone loving everyone.

It's disgusting.

Then we have the "white genocide" idea. Say what you will about Tarantino but we need stories like Django where the KKK and slavers are treated as the Always Chaotic Evil psychopaths they are.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Spinosegnosaurus77 Ramen Fairy from Ontario, Canada Since: May, 2011 Relationship Status: All I Want for Christmas is a Girlfriend
ironballs16 Since: Jul, 2009 Relationship Status: Owner of a lonely heart
#269274: Jan 29th 2019 at 11:57:25 AM

So with that cop shooting, it's even dumber than we initially thought.

They were apparently engaged in a game of Russian Roulette, which the third officer present chastised them for being idiots. Suffice to say, Reality Ensues.

"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"
AzurePaladin She/Her Pronouns from Forest of Magic Since: Apr, 2018 Relationship Status: Mu
She/Her Pronouns
#269275: Jan 29th 2019 at 12:00:24 PM

Hate to be a bother, but quick primary update is in order.

It seems our least favorite independent is considering running if the Democrats nominate someone he feels is 'too radical'. He'd apparently rather see Trump re-elected then someone like Warren or even Harris in the White house.

I don't mean to be too focused in on this, but I'm seriously worried about the prospect of a third party candidate running spoiler.

The awful things he says and does are burned into our cultural consciousness like a CRT display left on the same picture too long. -Fighteer

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